Conventionally, there are known sample imaging apparatuses which image stained blood smears magnified by a microscope and analyze the obtained image to classify blood cells and perform a counting operation.
JP-A-S62-135767 discloses a cell classifying apparatus which performs classification into white blood cells and red blood cells from an image obtained by imaging a sample which is prepared by subjecting a specimen to general staining (May-Giemsa staining), counts the number of reticulocytes from an image obtained by imaging a sample which is prepared by subjecting the specimen to supravital staining, and detects abnormal white blood cells from an image obtained by imaging a sample which is prepared by subjecting the specimen to peroxidase staining. If data of all the stained samples is in a normal range, the cell classifying apparatus classifies the specimen as a normal specimen group, and if various stain data of the same specimen is not in the normal range, the cell classifying apparatus determines whether precise analysis is required such as whether abnormal blood cells have been detected or whether unknown cells exist whose numbers are equal to or more than a certain value. In addition, for a quasi-positive specimen in a mixed area which is difficult to judge as normal or abnormal, the cell classifying apparatus performs a precise automatic re-examination to raise the precision of the analysis.
In the above-described sample imaging apparatus, the blood cell classification operation, the counting operation and the like cannot be normally performed if a blood smear is not normally stained. However, in the cell classifying apparatus disclosed in JP-A-S62-135767, when data of stained samples has an abnormality due to an abnormality in the staining, it is not possible to specify that the abnormality in the data of the stained samples is due to the abnormality in the staining.